In the Royal Tradition
by peroxidepest17
Summary: Wolfram and Conrad are, as Gwendal sees it, behaving like children.


**Title: **In the Royal Tradition  
**Universe:** Kyou Kara Maou  
**Theme/Topic:** Babies  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s:** Gwendal, lightly ConradxYuuri, mentions of YuurixWolfram  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** No spoilers I can imagine, probably just some OOC and silliness.  
**Word Count: **1,576  
**Time: **56 mins (no edits)  
**Summary:** Wolfram and Conrad are, as Gwendal sees it, behaving like children.   
**Dedication:** pyrefly- once again, I really have no idea what to do for your request. So like a cheap ass, I go for the first thing that comes to mind.**  
A/N:** Haha this is just crack fic, I guess. I like writing Gwendal too much. XD  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, though I wish constantly.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

Gwendal really thought the whole situation was rather infantile, and as the oldest of the three brothers he supposed it really was his prerogative to consider his siblings as such more than anyone else.

But even still, age had no accounting for the juvenile behavior of his brothers as of late, Wolfram's caused by general shortcomings of character which Gwendal supposed could only come from a lack of discipline in his youth and a naturally unruly character inherited from their mother, while Conrad's many current faux pas on the matter at hand could be seen as results of the soldier's general unflappable nature as it came to his reputation in the court.

Yuuri's behavior on the matter certainly didn't help, but it was easier for Von Walde to write that off because the young king had grown up in the human world and thus hadn't been socialized as to the ways in which the royalty of Shin Makoku operated.

Conrad and Wolfram however, were inexcusable on the manner given that as royal sons of the previous Maou they should both have known by now-- as Gwendal did-- that romance between the royal family and its adjutants was a very fickle and capricious thing, and also, one to be undertaken with a certain amount of care and delicacy all the same.

Wolfram was certainly being nothing more than a brat with his possessiveness and general displays of childish tantrum-throwing as far as Gwendal was concerned, always yelling and shouting about how Yuuri was _his_ when he very well knew that as a king, Yuuri was his only as long as he wanted to be, and could change that distinction at any given moment should he so choose, with no greater repercussions on his part.

Really, Wolfram ought to know these things by now, especially considering their mother and her three (that they knew of anyway) engagements on top of her many nameless, faceless trysts.

Gwendal sighed to himself and wondered if he should even try to take the pains necessary to correct this unsightly blemish on the otherwise sensible character of his youngest brother, or if it was a lost cause by now. He imagined it would be rather difficult to erase many, many decades of Cheri's overindulgence of Wolfram, their mother having spoiled him from early on as the one of her three children who more greatly resembled her rather than his father.

It really gave him a bit of a headache when he thought about what measures he might have to undertake to shape Wolfram back into the respectable member of the court he should already be.

But then again Yuuri wasn't helping the oldest brother's attempts any with his reluctance to break off an engagement he clearly wanted no part of, simply because he wished to avoid hurting Wolfram's feelings for as long as possible.

Broken hearts made men out of babes as far as Gwendal was concerned. A good, rescinded engagement and some rational words as to why the two of them could never work out the way they were now (if the kingdom wanted any sort of peace anyway) would only be a boon to Wolfram, perhaps give the blond the kick in the pants he sorely needed to correct his unsavory behavior regarding the matter (i.e. grow up a little). A broken engagement of course, didn't have to be a permanent thing amongst the royalty (as it very often was not), and Gwendal was certain if Yuuri gave Wolfram a _reason _to improve his character the blond would go about doing it with some determination in the effort to win Yuuri back, if Yuuri's love really meant anything at all to him (besides a rise in status and thus ownership) in the first place.

In short, Gwendal was beginning to think that being dumped would make Wolfram realize it was time to stop behaving like an overprotective fishwife (or a toddler who didn't want to share his toys with the other children, take your pick) and start acting like the highly ranked member of the king's court he ought to be.

Conrad on the other hand, was a totally different situation altogether, but one just as loathsome to Gwendal if only because Conrad—before Yuuri—had once been a creature of pure rational sense and good judgment. One Gwendal could really understand and sympathize with, at least.

But now it seemed as if the unflappable love he had for their new young king had erased all of that good sense and replaced the Conrad of old with a creature who threw caution to the wind and, as stated before, went about the seduction of young Shibuya Yuuri without the care and delicacy dictated by proper behavior amongst the nobility. Knowing that Yuuri was engaged meant that seducing him had to be a subtle affair, flirting with words and stolen looks perhaps, and not the blatant touches and caresses Gwendal saw between the two, the complete disregard for court etiquette simply because the two didn't have the courtesy (or common sense) to be subdued about anything when they were together.

Yuuri ditching lessons with Gunter to run off in seclusion with Conrad to "toss the old ball around" as he put it, was absolutely scandalous. Even the hired help was talking openly about it now, and Gwendal was loathe to see centuries of tradition go down the drain simply because his younger brother was too in something like puppy love to realize he was currently the talk of the town and tone it down before it got out of hand.

Really, the least those two could do was wait until after dark, scale down their balconies, and meet in the hayloft after the last patrols by the barn hands had been made.

Like traditional kings and queens of Shin Makoku had, back in the heyday.

In the days of proper court procedure.

Now, now everything was a mess. Now it was Conrad's arm around Yuuri's shoulders as they walked down the hall in broad daylight, laughing quietly at whatever private joke they were currently sharing, their affection all laid bare for _everyone to see_.

Or it was Conrad taking a napkin to Yuuri's face when he had food on his cheek, right in the main dining hall in the middle of a meal, or Yuuri in and out of Conrad's quarters at all hours of the day and night without so much as a how-do-you-do despite the rampant rumors and speculation going around as to the pair's relationship.

It was like Conrad didn't even _care_ that they were the subject of so much gossip, that he didn't mind as to the sullying of his reputation despite being the finest swordsman in the country. Scandalous.

Even Cheri had had the decency to run her affairs with more inconspicuousness— had kept them rather artfully under the radar until things were settled either way. She'd _never_ as far as Gwendal knew, taken more than one lover at the same time. And even if she had, she hadn't gone about making it _public_ _knowledge_.

But Yuuri… Yuuri. A fiancé on one hand, and a paramour on the other, and he wasn't even bothering to try and keep the whole sordid affair under wraps. Cheri would have at least broken off the engagement first (as she had many a time) before visiting another's bedchambers.

But then again Gwendal supposed his mother had never been particularly concerned with hurting anyone's feelings on such matters. Her prerogative as a queen was that they'd understand—they _had _to. Yuuri was, clearly, very different from her.

Still. Gwendal figured he should stop by and have a chat with Gunter on the matter one of these days, perhaps convince the lavender-haired adjutant (if he could get him over his heika-doting for a moment, a second, a _breath_) to try and talk to their young king about his behavior so that it would cause less gossip-mongering and general headache for the administrators-- who could _see _it and had to consequently _deal_ with it-- at Yuuri's side. Maybe in the midst of all those Shin Makoku history lessons Gunter could slip in a few subtle hints about how royal love affairs were _supposed_ to be handled and the issue could at least be sorted out from that end first and foremost.

Gwendal in the meantime, realized—with much dread—that as the eldest of the siblings, it was his responsibility and his responsibility alone to work on improving the general characters of his two love-sick younger brothers so that they'd stop behaving like such infants and realize that they were both going about this all wrong.

That decided, he figured it would be best to start with a long lecture and lots of severe looks. From there he would probably reacquaint them with the many centuries of Maou history they'd seemed to have forgotten and alongside that, remind them of the way affairs had been handled in the past (i.e. properly).

And if that didn't work, he knew he could always just send them both away on prolonged military campaigns—maybe to some of the border villages in the far northeast mountains.

Let them cool their jets, so to speak.

At the very least their absences would afford Gwendal some respite from all the headaches this not-so-courtly courtly love had been giving him as of late.

Really, an older brother's work was never done.

**END**


End file.
